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MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Lancashire business leaders gave an insight into their net zero journeys and the sustainable technologies and strategies they have introduced
Zowi Whittaker, group sustainability and environmental director, Fox Group
They cost three times more than a standard HGV, so it is a significant investment. There are massive grid capacity issues that need taking into account but someone has to go first. What we are learning will help others in the future.
The first step for businesses has to be gathering all your data. After that there’s low hanging fruit such as changing the lights, driving EV cars. Put film on windows that keeps the heat out in summer and retains it in winter. Sensors on light switches, you have to turn the computers off.
These are just small changes in behaviour and you have to have buy-in from staff.
Zowi Whittaker
We work in a very difficult industry when it comes to talking about carbon net zero. We operate 350 trucks. We have 5,000 pieces of plant, we operate in earthworks and we work all over the country.
We have made the public commitment for net zero by 2050, because the infrastructure technology is not there for us to stipulate anything other than that.
However, we’re taking the wins where we can. We are involved in intermodal haulage as well. We have a rail head in Leyland where we bring material in from all over the country, which massively reduces the amount of carbon that’s extracted.
We also move material via ship. We have a really strong connection with the port at Glasson Dock. We are really pushing on the circular economy aspect of what we do.
We bring material into our waste transfer stations, material recycling facilities, and then we’ll reprocess it and use it again.
We took a very big punt last year. Working with Volvo we launched the first UK EV tippers. We’ve had our teething problems but it’s been worth it. We’ve now got five more on order.
When it comes to procurement tendering we have to have a carbon reduction plan.
It’s important for recruitment. We are asked what we are doing and if we are following through with what we are saying. It does feel like a bit of a grilling.
Manesh Pandya, chief executive, ELE Advanced Technologies
We have capabilities that allow gas turbines to run at very high temperatures a lot more efficiently, reducing CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions. They are the capabilities we have to exploit.
Within our business strategy our vision is to continue to develop capabilities that will drive down the CO2 emissions for our customers. And if we are going to do that we have to have a policy that drives down our emissions as well.
So we have defined an ESG policy that we have been actively implementing for the past two years and the big catalyst for us was relocating our factory which enabled us to do some of the basic steps.
We’ve got solar panels on our roof producing 20 per cent of our energy needs. We’ve changed the electrical system so that we use a lot more LED.
Hot air produced from our compressor systems is diverted into part of our factory to reduce our heating bills. We have also moved towards greater use of electric vehicles and we provide free charging points on site.
Our customers are already asking for our ESG objectives, our KPIs. And our biggest challenge is how we measure our carbon emissions. How do we monitor that they’re reducing? And that’s the challenge that we’re working on now.
In excess of 90 per cent of our revenues are outside the UK. These are large international blue chip companies and they’re asking us for the information.
Manesh Pandya
We play a small but important role in people’s lives. Every time you switch on the kettle or put on a light, we make the components that go into the gas turbines that produce that power. We also make components that go into jet engines.
Equally, employees and potential employees are asking, particularly when you’re looking to attract young people into the organisation. This is one of their agenda items.
This is what they will look at on your website, to see how you are complying with ESG requirements and how you’re measuring your performance.
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